380

No. XXV.

JAMES PERRY, Esg.

LATE PROPRIETOR AND EDITOR OF THE MORNING CHRONICLE.

THE efficiency of the periodical press as an organ of public opinion, depends in a great measure on the integrity and honour, as well as on the abilities and industry of its conductors; among whom no one was more distinguished and esteemed for those qualities than the subject of the present memoir. The manner in which he executed, for a period of nearly forty years, the arduous, anxious, and responsible office of a journalist, while it secured to him, from the fair and open encouragement of the British public, an honourable independence, entitled him to a respectable rank among the public characters of the age.

Mr. Perry was a native of Aberdeen, and was born on the 30th of October, 1756. He received the rudiments of education at Chapel of Garioch, of which parish the Rev. W. Farquhar, father of Sir Walter Farquhar, was minister, and where, along with the youngest brother of Sir Walter, he received from that learned divine the most assiduous instruction. The school of Gairoch was at that time under the superintendence of the Rev. W. Tait, who raised its celebrity by his erudition and abilities. From this seminary Mr. Perry was removed to the High School of Aberdeen, where he continued his initiatory studies with much credit to himself under the guidance of Messrs. Dunn, then its principal masters. In the year 1771 he was entered of Marischal College in the University of Aberdeen, and was afterwards placed under Dr. Arthur Dingwall Fordyce, to qualify him for the profession of the Scots law.

At this period an occurrence took place which materially altered his prospects in life. His father, who was an eminent builder, having engaged in some unsuccessful speculations, found himself deprived of the means necessary to forward his son's advancement in the path he had chosen; and the young man in consequence left Aberdeen in 1774, and proceeded to Edinburgh, with the hope of obtaining a situation in some professional gentleman's chambers, where he might at once pursue his studies and earn a subsistence. After long and ineffectual attempts to procure employment, he determined to try his fortune in England, and proceeded to Manchester, where he was for two years engaged as clerk to Mr. Dinwiddie, a respectable manufacturer. In this situation he cultivated his mind by the study of the best authors, and gained the friendship and countenance of the principal gentlemen of the town, by the talents he displayed in a society established by them for philosophical and moral discussions. He attracted the further notice of this society by the production of several literary essays, which were very favourably received.

His early predilection for intellectual pursuits naturally urged him to seek a more favourable field for the exercise of his talents; and in the beginning of the year 1777 he proceeded to London, bearing letters of recommendation from the principal manufacturers in Manchester to their correspondents, who undertook to interest themselves in procuring for him a situation suited to his views. Their efforts did not prove immediately successful, and he remained for some time without any occupation except that which he found in directing the faculties of an intelligent and active mind to an attentive contemplation of the diversified and bustling scenes around him.

It may be presumed that he was no indifferent observer of the transactions passing in the political world, and that he participated in the speculations which, excited by the increasing circulation of newspapers, began to prevail generally on all public questions. There was at this time an opposition journal called the General Advertiser, which being recently established, was offered to notice by the expedient, not unusual at that time, of exhibiting daily the whole contents of the paper on boards hung at different shop-windows and doors in the manner, now practised for displaying theatrical placards. Mr. Perry, to divert the tedium of his morning hours, occasionally occupied himself in writing essays and fugitive verses for this paper, which he dropped into the letter-box of the office, and which were always inserted. Going one day to make his usual enquiries among the friends to whom he had been introduced, he called at the shop of Messrs. Richardson and Urquhart, booksellers, who were of the number; Mr. Urquhart happened to be busily engaged in reading, and apparently with lively interest, an article in the General Advertiser. When he had finished, Mr. Perry inquired, according to custom, whether he had heard of any situation that would suit him, and received an answer in the negative. Mr. Urquhart then shewing him the paper, said, "If you could write such articles as this, you might obtain immediate employment." It happened to be a humorous essay written by Mr. Perry himself; and in intimating this fact to his friend, he shewed him another in the same handwriting, which he intended to drop into the letter-box. Mr. Urquhart expressed great satisfaction at this discovery, and informed him that he was one of the principal proprietors of the paper; that they wanted just such a person; and that, as there was to be a meeting of the proprietors that same evening, he would propose Mr. Perry as a writer. He fulfilled his promise, and on the next day, the young adventurer was engaged at a salary of one guinea a week; and an additional half guinea for assistance to the London Evening Post, then printed by the same person.

To the establishment in which he was thus almost fortuitously placed, he devoted himself with the utmost assiduity; and on the memorable trials of Admirals Keppel and Palliser, he, for six successive weeks, by his individual efforts, managed to transmit daily from Portsmouth eight columns of a report of the proceedings, taken by him in court; and by these contributions, so interesting at the time, he raised the paper to an impression of several thousands a day.

In pursuing his laborious avocation, Mr. Perry found time to publish occasionally several political pamphlets and poems, which, though of transient interest, contributed to keep his mind in exercise and improved his facility of composition. Combining the cultivation of literature with the study of politics, he formed the plan of a monthly journal, which, together with a miscellany on popular subjects, should include a review of new books. This publication, of which he was the original editor, commenced in 1782, under the title of "The European Magazine." He had conducted it for twelve months, when, on the death of a Mr. Wall, he was chosen by the proprietors of the Gazetteer to be the editor of that respectable paper, shares in which were then held by some of the principal booksellers in London. Mr. Perry entered upon his office at a salary of four guineas a week, on the express condition that he should be left to the free exercise of his political opinions, which were those asserted by Mr. Fox. Of these opinions he was often in the habit of avowing, in maturer years, that from their liberality in the cause of freedom, justice, and humanity, they had, on hearing them declared, when he first entered the gallery of the house of commons, made an impression which could never be effaced from his mind. Indeed his attachment to that great statesman was of a far more exalted nature than mere party-feeling; it was a sentiment in which were commingled the unreserved affection of a friend with the reverential deference of a disciple.

His entrance upon the business of editing this journal was signalized by an improvement suggested by himself, which greatly accelerated the communication of parliamentary intelligence, through the medium of the public press., Until this period, each newspaper had but one reporter in each house of parliament; and the predecessor of Mr. Perry had been in the habit of settling with the public his arrear of debates, by protracting the reports of them for weeks and even months after the session had closed; while Mr. Woodfall in the Morning Chronicle, found means to keep pace with public business by bringing out his hasty sketch of one night's debates in the evening of the following day. Mr. Perry's plan, which consisted in the employment of a company of associates, each relieving the other in succession, was adopted; and, in consequence of this arrangement, the Gazetteer, published in the morning, contained as full a report as Mr. Woodfall was able to publish in the evening, and sometimes at midnight. Mr. Perry continued to conduct the Gazetteer for eight years; and, to the honour of the proprietors, it should be observed, that during the whole period, they never attempted to exercise any influence over his sentiments, but expressed their unqualified approbation of his exertions.

One of the most desirable qualifications of a journalist being a promptitude in the judicious expression of his thoughts, it was natural that Mr. Perry should for this and other reasons avail himself of every opportunity for acquiring that readiness in composition, which in many cases results from the habit of public speaking. In 1780, and for several subsequent years, there were numerous debating societies in every part of the metropolis, some of which were frequented by young persons, who afterwards distinguished themselves in parliament, in the pulpit, or on the bench. Mr. Perry took an active part in these oratorical exercises, and evinced powers which procured him honourable mention in the history of the Westminster Forum. It is a curious fact that the Lyceum, now converted into a theatre, was originally fitted up expressly for a superior school of oratory, by John Sheridan, Esq. a barrister, with the view of enabling such young gentlemen as were intended for the senate or the bar to practise public speaking before a genteel auditory. It was opened at the price of five shillings admittance; and among the eminent persons who countenanced the institution was Mr. Pitt, who had occasionally frequented others of a similar description, though he never spoke in any of them. Notwithstanding these favourable auspices, the Lyceum did not fulfil the hopes